Casting Lots

How to seek a prediction: Find a special “randomizing” device, use it, and interpret the outcome following an associated pre-established predictive system

Equipment: any purposeful randomizing mechanism-- could be throwing dice or knucklebones, turning to a random page of a book, a computerized random number generator, etc…

Personnel: Depending on the system, could be anyone (such as with knucklebone tossing) or a trained expert who would interpret the random passage in a book (such as with the Gospel of the Lots of Mary)

Casting lots (also known as “sortition,” “cleromancy,” or “sortilege”) is a process used since the beginning of recorded history to divine the future. No matter the physical devices used, the idea of casting lots is always the same: reveal the will of the gods via #human interpretation of the outcome of a purposely #randomizedprocess. Throwing dice is a good modern example of a “randomizing” process; the principle behind casting lots is each resulting combination will, owing to supernatural influence, reveal some aspect of a hidden future world.

In the videos below, Laura Nasrallah demonstrates two types of lot casting: knucklebone tossing and the Gospel of the Lots of Mary.

Tossing knucklebones (also called “astragalomancy”) was the ancient equivalent of throwing dice today--using animal knucklebones with markings analogous to pips on a die added. Predictions based on knucklebone divination start with a petitioner tossing the bones, followed by either the petitioner or an expert diviner looking up a corresponding predetermined prophecy for the values shown on the bones. For example, the lot oracle at Kremna (Asia Minor, in modern day Turkey, dating from about 120 CE) was a small limestone monument, about 2.4 meters in height, dedicated to the god Mercury. Inscribed on the side of the monument were 56 possible outcomes that the knucklebone thrower would consult in order to find the answer to questions about the future. There were over 20 stone lot oracles like this in Asia Minor. Evidence of astragalomancy dates back to at least 500 BCE in Ancient Greece.

To use the Gospel of the Lots of Mary, a petitioner would flip through the book and randomly pick out a passage of text (also called an oracle). The interpretation of the passage (which was often very vague and general) was up to either the petitioner, or to an expert they might consult. While the Gospels of the Lots of Mary are specific to early Christianity, this kind of sortition book was very common in the Greco-Roman world, with another popular example being the Sortes Astrampsychi. ^{External link}

Timeline: The general concept of the casting of lots is one of the most ancient forms of prediction and it continues to the modern era. The knucklebones Professor Nasrallah describes appear to have been in use from approximately 500 BCE to 500 CE. Divining books like theSortes Astrampsychiwere most popular from roughly 100 CE to 500 CE, and Harvard's copy of theGospel of the Lots of Marydates from approximately 500 CE.